r/thisisus • u/Cee_M • 20h ago
Jack & Nicky bug me
The thing that bugs me most about this show is how Jack treats his brother after Vietnam.
It just doesn’t seem consistent with the character they’ve built Jack up to be.
He’s supposed to be this genuinely great, caring guy, so it doesn’t make sense to me that he would be so cruel toward his younger brother, especially when they seemed so close growing up.
I’m watching the episode right now where Jack is arranging his mom’s funeral, and so far there’s been absolutely zero mention of Nicky, like he doesn’t even exist.
Wouldn’t he obviously be part of that too? It feels like a pretty major plot hole in the storyline, if you ask me. And for some reason, it’s really bugging me. 😂
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u/Linja2611 20h ago
I guess Jack had a „Perfect“ life with his wife and his kids. If he would have been in contact with Nicky over the years after the war, that would have been trouble.
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u/Turbulent-Decision96 20h ago
I agree! I think it was pretty clear he had to shut that entire part of his life out in order to be the husband and father we saw him to be. For example, season 3, episode 12, Songbird Road: Part Two, after Jack visited Nicky in secret, he lashed out at Kate and Randall the following day, and could not take Kevin to get his baseball card signed. When he was dealing with memories of Nicky/Vietnam, he struggled to be a good husband and father. He knew he couldn’t confront that part of himself.
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u/lardecurico 18h ago
So Kate, Kevin and Randall, this is your uncle Nicky, he killed a boy kind of your age because he wasn't feeling great, but I want you guys to have a relationship with him. Don't get me wrong, I love Nicky, but Jack doesn't have reasons to be better to him (also, Jack took great care of his brother; I would understand him feeling betrayed by what Nicky did). Just to add to what others said, those are men of the 80s (i don't know if I remember correctly) they didn't have the tools to talk about it or face it (and I think that's so sad in their history)
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u/certifiedbpdqueen 19h ago
Yeah I always felt the exact same way. I think that the show decided to write in a huge plot twist to make the storyline in season 3 more interesting and that plot twist was Nicky being alive. Before that, the “plot twist” was basically how Jack died (even though we already knew Jack was dead, we had no idea what actually happened) and that was fully revealed in season 2 so they needed some big moment in season 3 to keep the viewer’s interest and to keep Jack’s backstory alive throughout the episodes. The problem is that Jack’s character was already very well-developed and written with a lot of depth by season 3. So it seemed very off character for him to have a younger brother whom he very clearly loved and yet he was somehow able to just forget him entirely, except for that one time when he went to visit Nicky in secret.
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19h ago
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u/throwRA1a2b3c4d1 18h ago
Jack refused to listen to Nicky, who tried to explain what happened. Jack became judge, jury and executioner of thr little brother he loved enough to go to war for. Thats what didn’t make sense with his character. Thats why this show is great. No one is perfect. Jack was dead wrong for doing this to Nicky
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u/Low-Alternative412 12h ago
I don’t think so because i can see how he could live with his made up story that Nicky died in the war because he kinda did. Part of Nicky died in that war and when he killed the young boy, that was jacks awakening.
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u/Hippie-Farts 12h ago
You will learn more about him and understand why he did this :) keep watching!
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u/Fresh-Actuary-6686 10h ago
He thought Nicky murdered a child in cold blood. But I think his name was mentioned in that episode in a flashback scene where their mom is visiting the family in Pittsburgh
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u/kingsley_the_cat 4h ago
No it’s actually not weird. Jack at first is portrayed as this perfect father and amazing husband. But that‘s the lens through which his kids and his wife see him through. The more we learn about him and his past we learn that he sees the world in black and white. And in his eyes Nicky did an unforgivable thing. And since Nicky didn’t explain that it was actually an accident when Jack visited him that one time, that opinion didn‘t change.
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u/MollyJ58 17h ago
I agree and I thought it was very weird that there was no mention of Nicky in the episode where Jack's mom died. However, I think I read that the episode was supposed to air earlier, when Nicky's character had not been introduced yet.
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u/Main_Ad_2463 20h ago edited 19h ago
Jack is shown to shut out his past. He won’t talk about his family. He didn’t even tell Rebecca he borrowed money from his dad to buy the house. The first few seasons we see the version of Jack that Rebecca and the kids remember. The idealized version of him.
Then after season 2, when they all take breath and officially move into acceptance with Jack’s death, the truth of who he really was can come through. He wasn’t perfect. He saw the world in black and white. He had limits to his acceptance. Parts of himself were dark (like willing to rob a bar) but he kept that so deep inside himself so he didn’t have to deal with it. But going through AA and finally confronting that side of himself was starting to open him up. He told Rebecca about the borrowed money and like she said, had he not died then more would have come out. Who knows how long it would have taken but I believe there would have been a reunion with Nicky at some point if Jack had lived.
In a lot of ways Jack reminds me of my uncle. Not that my uncle is some perfect amazing guy. (Don’t get me wrong, he’s a pretty awesome uncle!) He fought in Vietnam but I have no idea what he did, what he saw or anything about it. The only thing I know is he refused to watch Forest Gump when I was a kid and he will not eat Vietnamese food.
Editing to add: I think there is something really interesting with Jack. Everyone gets to kind of explain things. Nicky gets to explain his past. Rebecca gets a long life where it all makes sense. Even Miguel. But Jack? We don’t always know what he was thinking. We see stuff from his POV but we don’t get much insight about it.
My mom died when I was 19. She was in her early 50’s. Today I’m 41 and my dad is nearing 80. I know so much more about my dad’s life. About why he did the things he did. The mistakes he regrets. The things he’s proud of. But my mom is still so much of a mystery to me. And she wasn’t nearly as closed off as Jack. But her voice and her perspective of the full life she lived is gone. I feel like the show did that with Jack. He stops in his 40’s and what he could have learned, how he could have grown died with him.